Great if you can afford it. We have everything paid off and a modest amount of money in the bank, that's intended for retirement but I'm trying to protect it for when I need it, but I'll be getting lazy soon enough myself. I actually enjoy working. Very much indeed. I just wish employers paid more is all.

Debt free is the way to go. I only financed two cars in my lifetime and both were always worth less than the balance owed. After I paid the second one off I started putting the payment amount in credit union so I could pay cash the next time around. Then I built my own house finding that I could pay for all the material I could nail up in a month's time. Bottom line I have been debt free for many decades.

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__________________I remember when power tools and small appliances had flexible cords.

You'd have a hard time doing that these days. In 2004, I did a fairly decent sized addition on my childhood home. Concrete was $60 a yard which was up from about $40 a yard a few years earlier, now it's $120. 12 /2 Romex was $34 a 250 ft roll in 2004, now it's about $80. However! I'm still making about the same I was back in 1984!! I have a friend who is being from payday to payday. No roof on yet and his floor is shot from the weather. Things is rougher than they used to be, but you know that each time you hit the grocery store!